Restriction/Ban of Naira ATM Cards Abroad- My Opinion

I know!, trust me I totally do know how you all feel about this issue. People have called me to slam me on my support for the current administration during their campaign. Ibank this, Ibank that, 'see the administration you supported' 'see the kind of policies springing up under this administration' so many stories and all. But I will like to make something clear here, I am not pro nor anti APC. It could even be fair if you call me Pro Buhari, yes, I might consider that; but then again I just think people are being to shallow minded.

Growing up, I have learnt to be patient and always seek to understand in what ever thing I do. For crying out loud, the government can not be so dumb to bring up policies without carefully scrutinizing them. I agree, the last administration might have had some very bad advisers and all but then again, there is always the positive perspective to every policy. No government will be so callous to want to enact policies with the aim of suffering the masses.

I was also shocked when I learnt about the new policy of restricting naira ATM cards abroad, but like I earlier said, I have learnt to always seek to understand before I speak. in my quest to understand the logic behind this policy, I realized that it didn't even come from the CBN but rather the Deposit Money Banks (DMB). In fact, I wont even consider it a policy but a condition which the commercial banks found themselves. Based on the theory of demand and supply, the demand for dollars outweighed that of naira, the more reason why commercial banks could no longer meet up and as such, had to device a means to reduce the demand for dollars.

These signs were evident in the last quarter of the year when banks continually sent messages to customers of their intention to cut down daily limit to $300 dollars and $1000 monthly. Some banks like Access bank sometime in November communicated that customers could make cash deposits to their account to the tune of $1000 daily. This was however discarded some days after, which I think was due to their inability to keep to the plan.

It is obvious, banks can no longer meet up with the demand for dollars and such, had to implement a policy that will cut down the demand for dollars therefore increasing the demand for naira. I totally believe this is just for a while and in no time, things will be fine again. With these few points of mine, I hope I have been able to convince you and not to confuse you that the ban of naira denominated ATM cards is for our good; thank you.